Monday, November 25, 2013

Every year around holiday time, I see people posting recipes
for low-fat and no-fat mashed potatoes, which I find as sad, as I do
perplexing. There’s no sane doctor alive, or bartender for that matter, who
will tell you eating a scoop of these mashed potatoes a few times a year will,
in any way, negatively effect your health.

So what’s up with the reduced-fat
holiday potatoes? Isn’t that the reason we try to eat well all year, so on
Thanksgiving we can bathe guilt-free in gravy? Sure, serving your loved ones
potatoes with a pound of butter in them on a regular basis would be cause for
alarm…or at least a glance at any recently purchased life insurance
policies…but for truly special occasions, it’s crazy not to enjoy such a pleasure.

By the way, this is no viral-video gimmick. Those star chefs
you see Anthony Bourdain dry-humping every week (sorry, I was channeling my
inner Anthony Bourdain) all use at least this much butter, and as legend has
it, some even flirt with equal parts. Of course, they call it pomme purée, and
say it with a French accent, but it’s the same stuff.

Nobody says you have to go full Joël Robuchon and actually
use this recipe, but please try to force yourself to add more than the few
meager tablespoons that get us through the rest of the year. Anyway, if you’re
never experienced this ethereal pleasure, I hope you make them a part of your
next special occasion menu. Enjoy!

Ingredients for 8 portions:

3 1/4 pounds russet potatoes (3 or 4) Note: this will not work with red potatoes, as they are too waxy

1 pound unsalted butter

1/4 cup hot milk

salt and pepper to taste

Note: Thanksgiving gravy warning! For obvious reasons, these aren't very sturdy mashed potatoes, so be careful with the gravy. If you totally drench them they'll basically melt.

Yes, yes, please answer MrOCT31's question! I was planning to do the original mashed potato recipe Thursday morning and carrying it in a pre-warmed crock-pot to our feast location. Before serving, I figured I could mix in a little warm milk to loosen them if needed.

Tasty looking. But I don't think it's fair to say that lumpy potatoes are worse than Satan. Have you read any Steven King novels? Frankly, Satan sounds kind of frightening. Even more frightening than uncooked potatoes.

My dad makes these every year and they are awesome! But, my friend, those are not mashed potatoes they're whipped potatoes - but you did use the word whipped in the video so I'm letting you off the hook. Someone asked about making them ahead of time then reheating - they're good that way but not nearly as good as just whipped. Happy Thanksgiving.

This is exactly how I was taught to make my mashed potatoes as a kid in Idaho. Except for whipping in the butter and hot milk. We always just used the potato masher to do that. I have had many people who claim they hate mashed potatoes fall in love with them with this recipe. Very well done Chef! Try these with chicken (or Turkey) noodle soup after Thanksgiving. Yum!

We made these for our TG dinner and, yes, the amount of butter is staggering when you see it on a plate waiting to mix it into the potatoes. But darn if these aren't super super tasty. Four of us ate an entire eight-serving recipe. So good! Definitely not an everyday dish though! :)

I plan on making this for my holiday meal, which will be simple braised short ribs. I am however going to take these up just a bit. I was lucky enough to get a fresh winter truffle and will be shaving a bit of this in at the end to take them up just a bit.

One thing I typically do with the potatoes is to run them through a ricer. Makes for the smoothest potatoes.

Could you please list an exact recommended measurement for the salt, pepper, and cayenne rather than simply to taste. I've never made mashed potatoes yet and plan on making these for Christmas but I like to follow recipes exactly and not try and guess how much of something to add.

I was a bit negligent, so I made this with cold butter, straight out of the refrigerator. I somewhat expected a disaster to happen, but no, nothing bad happened. In fact, a wonderful thing happened (though probably unrelated to the coldness of the butter) - the mashed potatoes turned out perfect, so creamy and delicious... :D

Thanks for making this great argument in favour of butter. Butter is really the key to delicious mashed potatoes!